Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Joni Mitchell

Fran e-mailed that she's a huge Joni Mitchell fan and she wanted me to include this interview with Joni.



Fran thinks its the best one she's seen.  I really haven't seen a lot of Joni interviews -- it's a good interview -- I'm more of a print interview type person.  But I'm glad Fran shared that because it is a good interview.

Staying with Joni -- thank Martha and Shirley, they read the bulk of the e-mails to common_ills@yahoo.com and they pulled a series of e-mails about Joni Mitchell for me -- Lorenzo e-mails that the Joni song that's been sticking in his head lately is "Passion Play (When All The Slaves Are Free)."



 Magdalene is trembling
Like a washing on a line
Trembling and gleaming
Never before was a man so kind
Never so redeeming
Enter the multitudes
In Exxon blue
In radiation rose
Ecstasy
Now you tell me
Who you gonna get to do the dirty work
When all the slaves are free?
(Who're you gonna get)
I am up a sycamore
Looking through the leaves
A sinner of some position
Who in the world can this heart healer be
This magical physician
Enter the multitudes
In Exxon blue
In radiation rose
Misery
Now you tell me
Who you gonna get to do the dirty work
When all the slaves are free?
(Who're you gonna get)
Enter the multitudes
The walking wounded
They come to this diver of the heart
of the multitudes
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done

I think that's a great song at any time but it really does apply to what's going on today, yes. 

Laveda said that she won a radio triva contest in 1999 because she knew the chorus to Joni Mitchell's "Raised on Robbery."



She asks if Joni's ever helped me in something similar?

Actually, today there was this man at one of the speaking events who wanted to impress, I guess, so he quoted part of Rudyard Kipling's "If."



Because of Joni's recording, I knew the poem and managed to toss back, "If you can dream and not make dreams your master."

Lastly, Cecile e-mailed to say that this 1974 live video is her favorite live performance by Joni.


 Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 
Tuesday, June 23, 2020.  Cornavirus remains on the rise in Iraq, OXFAM notes the way the disease is effecting Iraqi women, Turkey continues to terrorize Iraq, UK military members whisper about a whitewash, and much more.



In Iraq, the coronavirus continues to claim lives.  Football legend Ahmed Radhi is the most famous victim so far but he is one of many who have perished in the pandemic. Hiwa Shilani (KURDISTAN 24) reports:

On Monday, the Iraqi Ministry of Health and Environment announced that 67 deaths and 1,808 new coronavirus infections had been recorded in the country over the past 24 hours.
The ministry in a statement noted that 10,075 laboratory tests had been carried out over the last day, increasing the total number of medical tests conducted, since the disease first emerged in Iraq, to 455,316.
According to the ministry’s latest figures, there has been a total of 32,676 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Iraq, including 1,167 deaths, 14,785 recoveries, with 16,724 cases still active, in which individuals are receiving medical care, with 222 of them in intensive care.
The Health Ministry of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) also announced on Monday that there has been eight deaths over the past 24 hours in the Kurdistan Region, along with 299 new cases.

OXFAM has released a paper on the coronavirus in Iraq and they note, "This gender analysis shows that women in three sample areas of Iraq are facing an increase in the burden of domestic work and caring responsibilities, a heightened risk of domestic violence and gender-based violence, and greater loss of economic livelihoods and autonomy than men. They also face greater difficulties in accessing healthcare and support services, due to restrictions on movement and constrictive social norms, have limited decision-making power, and lack the information on coronavirus itself which should help keep them safe."  From the paper:


The situation of Iraqi women was already precarious before the pandemic. Years of socio-economic and political instability have led to a deterioration in the rights, well-being and representation of women in Iraq. The results of the gender analysis confirm these worrying trends: women and girls are more at risk and withstand more pressure during this pandemic.
Women bear most of the burden of cleaning the house, preparing food, and taking care of children and sick people. While women used to spend on average more than six hours a day performing unpaid activities, their burden is likely to increase due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 
Women and girls face increased risks of violence during the pandemic. With most incidents of gender-based violence occurring in the home, the lockdown is likely to put women at increased risk of violence. A majority of the interviewees think that women and children are facing increased protection risks as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. However, GBV survivors lack access to the support they need.
Women have less access to information on COVID-19 than men and are more likely to be unable to protect themselves from the disease. While most respondents felt suitable informed about COVID-19 guidelines, from watching TV or social media, many felt they were unable to carry out the preventative measures due to lack of resources to purchase the necessary items. 
Women's incomes and livelihoods are more affected by coronavirus prevention measures than those of men. Between 15 and 30% of the women surveyed had some form of economic activity before the crisis. Most of them were not able to maintain this since the outbreak.
Access to sexual and reproductive health services is extremely limited, putting women at risk of mortality and morbidity that could otherwise be avoided. A shortage of contraceptive supplies, fear of contracting the virus in the health facilities and movement restrictions are among the key factors impacting women's sexual and reproductive health during the pandemic. 
The current pandemic presents unprecedented challenges for women's health, livelihoods, safety and representation. 
We call on public authorities and humanitarian actors to protect women from physical, psychological and economic violence, to enhance their participation in the COVID-19 response and to provide gender-sensitive interventions. 

The report also notes "the shadow pandemic" taking place -- violence against women and girls:



According to worldwide projections by UNFPA, '31 million additional cases of gender-based violence can be expected to occur if the lockdown continues for at least 6 months. For every 3 months the lockdown continues, an additional 15 million extra cases of gender-based violence are expected.'One in five Iraqi women and girls (21%) aged 15–49 were subjected to physical domestic violence in 2008. In a 2012 survey, 73% of women aged 15–45 reported that the perpetrator of domestic violence was their husband, followed by their father (53%), then other family members (43%). With most incidents of gender-based violence occurring in the home, lockdown measures to prevent the transmission of coronavirus are likely to put women at increased risk of violence.




Coronavirus was hardly the start of gendered discrimination and violence in Iraq. Women across the country have been faced with increased precarity due to years of conflict, socio-economic and political instability.

Several high profile cases of gender-based violence in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region made headlines during the last several months, in line with news of a rise in domestic violence during coronavirus lockdowns around the globe.

According to the United Nations, 46 percent of married women in Iraq have survived some form of abuse at home, of which a third report physical and sexual assault.

A participant in Oxfam’s survey attributes the increase in domestic violence to men not being able to go work or socialize, leading to a spiral of economic hardship and frustration.

"Men have little patience. […] Before, when men got angry they could go out and after a while forget about the issue, but now they can't go out and [they] have to stay together, and that creates more tension,” one male respondent, aged 36, told Oxfam researchers.

Iraq does not have any specific laws to protect against gender-based violence, which disproportionately affects women.

Several UN agencies in April called on the Iraqi Parliament to rapidly adopt an Anti-Domestic Violence Law amid the reported rise in domestic violence during the COVID-19 lockdown. 

No surprise that the Anti-Domestic Violence Law has yet to be adopted, nothing seems to take place in Iraq.  




How bad is the corruption?  Listen to MP Majida al Tamimi explain it.  "Even the traffic fines," she says, "how much of this do you think actually goes towards the budget?"

The corruption never ends and the Iraqi people never have their needs met -- not even basic needs like water they can drink.  Azhar Al-Ruabie (AL-MONITOR) reports:


Iraq's third-largest city, Basra, was once called “Venice of the East” due to the numerous water canals and bridges meandering throughout the entire city. This description is no longer true, as the Shatt al-Arab ("Stream of the Arabs") and its branches have become polluted with algae, bacteria, chemical toxins, and waste products from humans, hospitals and factory residuals.
On June 1, Iraq’s Ministry of Water Resources announced that it has prepared a comprehensive plan to tackle the problem of salinity and environmental pollution in Basra province. The plan covers several measures, including building a dam in northern Basra to prevent river water from becoming further salinated.
Shatt al-Arab is a confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. But nowadays, what is flowing into Shatt al-Arab comes mostly from the Tigris River. This is because both rivers are witnessing decreasing rainfall, high temperatures over the past couple of years and the construction of dams along the two river streams. In turn, this has lowered Shatt al-Arab's share of water and polluted it with multiple contaminates.
Despite Basrawis living in a hydrocarbon-rich province, residents since 2011 have come together on the streets and in front of government buildings to demand rights such as clean water, health care, electricity, jobs, an end to corruption, and an end to foreign interference from the United States and Iran. Clean water was and still is their major demand, but no tangible measures have been taken.
In September 2018, Basrawis took to the streets to protest the government when more than 118,000 people in Basra suffered poisoning due to contaminated water. Health authorities and the High Commission for Human Rights announced that those admitted to hospitals in 2018 were experiencing severe diarrhea, vomiting, nausea and high fever.
 
Protest, demands, deaths.  None of it mattered.  The water issue has still not been addressed.  Iraqi politicians hide in the Green Zone to escape the wrath of the Iraqi people.  



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6:57 AM · Jun 23, 2020

Did the two discuss Turkey terrorizing Iraq?  Probably not.  But Salar Salim (AP) reports:

Dozens of civilians fled villages in northern Iraq on Monday as Turkey stepped up a military campaign targeting Kurdish rebels that has drawn condemnation from Iraqi officials.
Residents loaded trucks with their belongings and shepherds led livestock out of the Iraqi border village of Keshani as Turkish forces bombarded suspected positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency against Turkey.
Turkey launched an air and ground offensive into the border region last week in a campaign to root out the PKK, which Ankara maintains has bases in northern Iraq. Those fleeing said they were afraid of airstrikes and Turkish troops entering their homes.

According to sources, Turkey has carried out air raids in the autonomous KRI due to claims of existence of PKK rebels in Iraq, but the victims of the past week were displaced Yazidis returning to Sinjar, displaced Assyrian Christians in Zakho, and Kurdish civilians in Dohuk/Erbil
Yazidi Refugee camp in Sinjar (Photographer: KHALID AL MOUSILY / REUTERS)
12:16 AM · Jun 23, 2020


Senior army commanders pressured a junior officer to stop an internal investigation into a British war crime in Iraq, writing it off as an “unfortunate incident in war”, a former member of the Royal Military Police’s Special Investigations Branch (SIB) has told Declassified UK. 
Another former senior SIB officer has said that British paratroopers should have been convicted of killing another Iraqi but they escaped punishment when a trial collapsed after failings in an SIB investigation. 
Declassified UK has spoken to four former soldiers in the SIB, which deployed to the Iraq conflict in 2003 alongside conventional troops, ready to investigate serious incidents involving UK forces, including potential British war crimes. None wanted to be named.
Decisions were made not to send sufficiently qualified senior investigating officers to command the SIB during the invasion and early tours, the former SIB members said. This made it easier for the army’s senior command to influence the investigations into abuses and created a backlog of unresolved cases, they say.
“I did not feel qualified to deal with an investigation of this scale and did not have sufficient resources,” one of the unit’s leaders later said. The SIB should have sent their “A-team” to Iraq, but instead dispatched officers who were “completely unqualified” to lead serious investigations in a theatre of war, a former senior SIB officer told Declassified UK. 
“They sent the wrong people… And to this day I don’t know why,” the source said. “The more I think about it, the more mad it becomes.”
The former senior SIB officer said that one would “absolutely 100%” expect to see more UK military prosecutions coming out of Iraq. He added, “You look at the amount of people who were prosecuted – virtually none. You know, how many people got away with murder?”





The following sites updated:







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Monday, June 22, 2020

Bob Dylan

johnboltonwantstoshare

That's   Isaiah's  THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "War Criminal John Bolton Wants To Share."


It went up Sunday and so did my latest album review  "Kat's Korner: Bob brings it all back home one more time" about Bob Dylan's new album ROUGH AND ROWDY WAYS.




That's "False Prophet," a great song but not one that I noted in my review.  The lyric video above was released today on Bob's YOUTUBE channel.

Razmig Bedirian (THE NATIONAL) notes:


Bob Dylan has released his first original album in eight years.
Entitled Rough and Rowdy Ways, the album swings between bluesy, overdriven head-boppers to introspective ballads that dive into war’s horrors, existential whirlwinds and gritty confrontations with death.
This is all done with the buoyant wordplay that we expect from the 79-year-old folk legend.
However, Dylan's lyrics in the new album also have a myriad of literary references, from allusions of Greek mythology and Shakespeare to mentions of Edgar Allan Poe and William Blake.
The first song of the album, I Contain Multitudes, takes its title from a line in Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself. The crystal-clear guitar chords are a mere backdrop, acting as a shimmering banister that guides listeners along Dylan’s musings.
There are minimal changes to the music throughout the four-minute tune. If this tune sets the tone for the album, it's clear Dylan wants audiences to focus on his words rather than be carried away by musical arrangements.

Because he’s got quite a bit to say.
The first line of the second verse begins with the phrase “Got a tell-tale heart like Mr Poe”, a nod to the macabre writer’s short story The Tell-Tale Heart, which tells of a guilt-ridden narrator who confesses to murder after he hears his victim’s heart beating from his resting place beneath the floorboards.
The following line, “Got skeletons of the walls of people you know”, continues the reference and perhaps even alludes to two more of Poe’s stories: The Cask of Amontillado and The Black Cat.
The song is replete with other literary references. The line “Half my soul, baby, belongs to you” appears in the story The Angel of Forgetfulness by Howard Schwarz. In the tale, it goes: “For in this generation, half of my soul belongs to you and the other half to another, whom you must seek out.”
In the fourth verse, Dylan pays homage to Anne Frank, Indiana Jones and the Rolling Stones. He also references Blake, singing: “I sing the songs of experience like William Blake”, referencing the English poet’s 1794 illustrated poetry collection Songs of Innocence and of Experience; Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul.



Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 
Monday, June 22, 2020.  Iraq remains leaderless as the jobs just don't exist and as Turkey continues is reign of terror on Iraq.

Where are the jobs?  In the global economy, that's a question for everyone but it's especially a question in Iraq where you graduate from a university only to find . . . no jobs.  This is one of the realities that put protesters in the street last fall.  

Months later -- three months shy of a year -- nothing has been done.

And now the economy is in ever more jeopardy.  AFP reports:

Iraq's economy could reach irreversible lows within the next year unless urgent reform measures are adopted, its finance minister warned in an exclusive interview with AFP on Monday.
"Reform is inevitable," said Ali Allawi, who has been tasked with stabilising Iraq's economy following an oil price crash that saw state revenues slashed by half.
"If we do not amend the situation throughout the next year, we may face shocks we cannot fix." 


Iraq's economy is projected to shrink by 10% in 2020 following a dramatic drop in oil prices from over $50 per barrel to about $20.
Opec's second-biggest oil producer relies almost exclusively on its crude exports to fund its budget, which includes a bloated public sector and broad state subsidies.

We'll note this thread.  Noor is a doctor who graduated last year:

when every nation and government salute their white army, we see the Iraqi government deprives the right of the newly graduated doctors! A year has passed without employment! And instead of supporting them, the government has asked them to volunteer! @leloveluck @SimonaFoltyn



Meanwhile, more than 2000 newly trained medics have been asked to volunteer their services until a state budget is approved for their labour. This at a time when infections among frontline doctors are rising fast.


So what can we do ?we are prisoners in our country we are doctors without jobs and documents We can not work out side Iraq because we don’t have documents and we can’t work in Iraq because the government can not hire us due to the financial problems


And the protest over the lack of jobs continues.  NRT Tweets:

Protesters briefly block major road in Sulaimani to demand KRG pay salaries, create job opportunities Security forces fire tear gas to disperse demonstrators nrttv.com/En/News.aspx?i
#NRTnews #Iraq #TwitterKurds #Sulaimani
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1:00 AM · Jun 22, 2020


The lack of jobs is only one of the many problems facing Iraq currently.  Among other problems?  Turkey is terrorizing the people of Iraq in the north.  They are bombing Iraq, they have sent soldiers on the ground into Iraq.  Friday, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom issued the following:

USCIRF Condemns Turkish Military Operations in Northern Iraq
Calls on Turkish President to Cease Air Strikes and Violence Targeting Civilian Areas
Washington, DC – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) condemned Turkey’s latest round of air strikes and ground operations (“Operation Claw-Eagle” and “Operation Claw-Tiger”) near civilian areas in northern Iraq, calling on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to order an immediate end to these actions.
USCIRF Chair Gayle Manchin said, “USCIRF calls on Turkey to immediately cease its brutal airstrikes in Sinjar, Iraq and to withdraw any ground troops—who represent a dangerous escalation of violence in an already-fragile area. These actions are particularly threatening to hundreds of traumatized Yazidi families attempting to return to Sinjar and to other civilians in northern Iraq—none of whom deserve to be placed in harm’s way by a NATO ally.”
The Turkish government claims that these actions, representing the most recent in a series of similar operations in the Sinjar area since 2017, are ostensibly targeting Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) positions. However, these indiscriminate operations have taken place just days after 200 families arrived in Sinjar after six years in a refugee camp in Dohuk, Iraq. It also was in close proximity to towns and camps in which displaced Yazidi families have taken refuge since the 2014 genocide by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
“Turkey’s operations in Iraq and northeastern Syria make it clear that regional ambitions—not domestic security—are driving its actions today, and it cannot be allowed to do so with impunity,” USCIRF Vice Chair Tony Perkins stated. “We call upon the administration to utilize all diplomatic and economic leverage to protect vulnerable religious minorities in northern Iraq—as well as neighboring northeastern Syria—from Turkey’s indiscriminate military operations.”
Since 1984, Turkey has waged an intermittent war against the PKK, an organization of Kurdish separatists that the U.S. has designated as a terrorist group. The Turkish military has frequently targeted purported PKK positions—or those of groups directly or indirectly tied to the PKK—in neighboring Iraq and Syria. In this massive campaign, Turkey has claimed to strike over 500 militants in areas where there is no indication of attacks planned or occurring against Turkey. Once again, Turkey is showing their disregard for vulnerable religious and ethnic minorities who live in, or have been displaced to, those same areas.
In its 2020 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended the State Department include Turkey on its Special Watch List “for engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom.”
###
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the U.S. Congress to monitor, analyze, and report on threats to religious freedom abroad. USCIRF makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress intended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion and belief. To interview a Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at media@uscirf.gov or Danielle Ashbahian at dashbahian@uscirf.gov.


USCIRF joins the Arab League, the UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia who have all condemned the actions of the Turkish government.  Christian Peaemaker Teams Tweets:


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4:03 PM


Saturday,  ARAB NEWS reported:

There was growing anger in the Arab world on Saturday at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s “military adventurism” in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Ankara claims to be targeting Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants with Operation Claw-Eagle, its first official air and land offensive on Iraqi soil. It attacked Sinjar, the Qandil mountains, Karajak, Zap and Hakurk with aerial and ground operations involving F-16 fighter jets, missile launchers, heavy artillery and special forces units.
Baghdad condemned the invasion, and the Turkish ambassador to Iraq was summoned to the Foreign Ministry twice in two days to explain his country’s conduct. The envoy was handed a note of protest, in which Iraq accused Turkey of “violations of Iraqi sovereignty by bombing and attacking targets within our international borders.”
The UAE also criticized the Turkish attack, and Saudi Arabia condemned Turkish and Iranian aggression on Iraqi land, offering its support for Baghdad in measures to preserve its sovereignty, security and stability.
The criticism reflects growing Arab suspicion of Turkey’s wider regional ambitions, analyst Bill Park told Arab News.
 “The Arab reaction needs to be seen in this wider context — Turkey’s support of the Muslim Brotherhood, its unwillingness to confront Iran, its meddling in Syria, its military relationship with Qatar and indeed Somalia, the stance it has taken in Libya and its approach to energy exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean,” said Park, a visiting research fellow at King’s College, London.
“This incursion will only feed those suspicions. Turkey is quite friendless now in the Arab world.”


The Turkish government insists that they are targeting and killing the PKK.    Aaron Hess (International Socialist Review) described the PKK in 2008, "The PKK emerged in 1984 as a major force in response to Turkey's oppression of its Kurdish population. Since the late 1970s, Turkey has waged a relentless war of attrition that has killed tens of thousands of Kurds and driven millions from their homes. The Kurds are the world's largest stateless population -- whose main population concentration straddles Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria -- and have been the victims of imperialist wars and manipulation since the colonial period. While Turkey has granted limited rights to the Kurds in recent years in order to accommodate the European Union, which it seeks to join, even these are now at risk."  We'll note this Tweet:

#Turkey’s actions, including airstrikes in northern Iraq, potentially threaten local genocide against #Kurds and #Christians, just as they did to #Armenians


Iraqi military delegation arrived in Duhok province on Monday to investigate the aftermath of this week's Turkish military operations in the area. Iraq condemns Turkey's deadly intervention of protesters in Duhok
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2:43 PM


The Turkish government lies and insists that they are attacking the PKK but it is civilians they are attacking and terrorizing.





















The airstrikes in northern Iraq now target areas where coexistence has existed between Christians and Kurds, raining down bombs where children play in their parents' yards. A source told local media that airstrikes have damaged property. Turkey’s airstrikes have been killing civilians every year over the last several years. Seven were killed in 2017, and in 2019 airstrikes and a protest led to one death. Beekeepers and farmers have also been killed. Over the weekend, mourners gathered in Amedi after several men were killed. “We can’t do anything, no one does anything for us,” the father of a victim said. Christians say they are being terrorized by the bombings, according to reports at Rudaw.
There have been protests against the airstrikes in the town of Shilzade. So far, the UN and other human rights groups do not appear to have taken any notice of the attacks. US diplomats do not visit the area despite American claims that it cares about Christian and other minorities in the Middle East. Western diplomats also don’t seem to show any interest. Iraq’s government has complained to Turkey about the airstrikes over the years and the increase of Turkish bases in northern Iraq, but Baghdad is unable to do anything about it.  





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